In my response for today, I will address the first writing question, which deals with definitions of political poetry. In considering what I mean when I talk about political poetry, I feel like one of the first things I need to do is self-position as a slam poet. (I wonder if that counts as an interpretive community; someone call Stanley Fish! J) In the slam community, poems are frequently referred to as political when they deal with “hot” issues of fairly universal interest/conflict. Some examples include poems that deal with war, race, domestic violence, and LGBTQ topics. Political poems tend to do very well in slam competitions, in part because of the intensity and wide appeal of their content. However, because of this, sometimes poets sacrifice craft in order to write a poem that will score well, which has created quality issues that sometimes result in political poems getting a bad reputation. For example, someone might throw together a really poorly-crafted poem about domestic violence because they know that it will score well even if the content isn’t up to snuff. On the other hand, a really well-done poem that isn’t as political might not score as well. To me, that seems to send a problematic message. Obviously, the political poems that we’re looking at are not coming out of the slam tradition, so some of the issues I’ve raised are completely irrelevant to them. However, I felt that it was relevant to establish my own frame of reference as I move forward in analysis. In choosing political poems from Rossetti, Hemans, and Browning, I found that I had a lot of fun playing around with the political implications in Rossetti’s work, particularly with the subtleties. (Plus, I just really love Rossetti, so I’m probably biased.) One example is my analysis of “A Portrait.” While I don’t think that this poem is necessarily a solely political poem, I feel that there are certainly political elements. Because this is meant to be a brief response, I won’t engage in a full close reading, but I’ll provide a few examples. The most political element I found in this poem was a critique of religion. My basis for such a reading is primarily the following line pairing from stanza one: “So with calm will she chose and bore the cross/And hated all for love of Jesus Christ,” (Rossetti, 46). The juxtaposition of hate and love in relation to religion seems to highlight the potential for both corruption and hypocrisy in devotion.
Works Cited 1.) Rossetti, Christina. Goblin Market and Other Poems. New York: Dover Publications. (1994). Print.
ENGL 864 Response 6/23/14
In my response for today, I will address the first writing question, which deals with definitions of political poetry. In considering what I mean when I talk about political poetry, I feel like one of the first things I need to do is self-position as a slam poet. (I wonder if that counts as an interpretive community; someone call Stanley Fish! J) In the slam community, poems are frequently referred to as political when they deal with “hot” issues of fairly universal interest/conflict. Some examples include poems that deal with war, race, domestic violence, and LGBTQ topics. Political poems tend to do very well in slam competitions, in part because of the intensity and wide appeal of their content. However, because of this, sometimes poets sacrifice craft in order to write a poem that will score well, which has created quality issues that sometimes result in political poems getting a bad reputation. For example, someone might throw together a really poorly-crafted poem about domestic violence because they know that it will score well even if the content isn’t up to snuff. On the other hand, a really well-done poem that isn’t as political might not score as well. To me, that seems to send a problematic message.
Obviously, the political poems that we’re looking at are not coming out of the slam tradition, so some of the issues I’ve raised are completely irrelevant to them. However, I felt that it was relevant to establish my own frame of reference as I move forward in analysis. In choosing political poems from Rossetti, Hemans, and Browning, I found that I had a lot of fun playing around with the political implications in Rossetti’s work, particularly with the subtleties. (Plus, I just really love Rossetti, so I’m probably biased.) One example is my analysis of “A Portrait.” While I don’t think that this poem is necessarily a solely political poem, I feel that there are certainly political elements. Because this is meant to be a brief response, I won’t engage in a full close reading, but I’ll provide a few examples. The most political element I found in this poem was a critique of religion. My basis for such a reading is primarily the following line pairing from stanza one: “So with calm will she chose and bore the cross/And hated all for love of Jesus Christ,” (Rossetti, 46). The juxtaposition of hate and love in relation to religion seems to highlight the potential for both corruption and hypocrisy in devotion.
Works Cited
1.) Rossetti, Christina. Goblin Market and Other Poems. New York: Dover Publications. (1994). Print.